Zimbabwe’s President Robert Mugabe is facing a harsh confrontation with his Reserve Bank and Supreme Court over the raging diamonds conflict in his country, according to All Africa website.

Official Harare sources told the website that Mugabe has painted himself into a corner after he accepted Mines minister Obert Mpofu's explanation that gemstones extracted from the contested Chiadzwa diamonds fields must be kept at the Minerals Marketing Corporation of Zimbabwe (MMCZ), instead of in the Reserve Bank.

Mpofu and officials at his ministry reportedly informed Mugabe that the Kimberley Process Certification Scheme requires that diamonds be kept at the MMCZ as opposed to the central bank, a move the latter considers illegal, in view of the recent Supreme Court ruling on the matter.

Keeping the diamonds at MMCZ is "illegal" as it brazenly defies the Supreme Court ruling.

Chief Justice Godfrey Chidyausiku on January 25 ruled that the 129,400 carats of diamonds must be kept at the Reserve Bank until an appeal process to that effect was finalized. Africa Consolidated Resources (ACR), which owns the contested diamonds, is fighting the stones’ seizure.

Mugabe came out publicly suggesting Mpofu's position to keep the diamonds at the MMCZ is correct even though the Supreme Court has ruled that the diamonds must be surrendered to the central bank for safekeeping.

Zimbabwe’s Supreme Court is anxious about the rule-of-law and contempt-of-court ramifications of the move.